Help with scanning old photos

J.James · 11 Sep 2022 at 10:36

Hi everyone.
Mum has recently asked me to save all her old photos onto my pc/memory card. Scanning photos is not something I'm really familiar with and I only have a regular consumer printer/scanner (Epson XP4155).

Could a few of you give me a few tips on scanning these photos. I just want to preserve the photos the best I can, some are black & white, some colour, some with matte finish, others glossy.

I guess saving each one as a JPG is a no no? I'm a bit out of my depth I'm afraid, the scanner software is giving too many options like resolutions etc..

Thank you!

Quartz · 11 Sep 2022 at 11:22

How many photos are we talking about? If it's lots then you might want to speak to your workplace about using one of their scanner copiers. You probably want something with a straight through scanning path to minimise damage to the photos.

And yes, you probably want something better than jpg. TIFF used to be the standard lossless format in my time. Resolution? As high as possible. If it's at all possible get multiple resolution copies of each photo. Something you can quickly display on screen and then something for more serious investigation.

You'll likely find that scanning the photos is the quick part of the job: after that the two of you will have to go through each and every one to give them a meaningful description.

J.James · 11 Sep 2022 at 20:42

Hi Quartz, and thank you!

Around 150 photos to be scanned.

I like your idea of multiple copies at different resolution, the smallest files could be put on my Mums tablet to load quickly, I was planning on putting them on there to show her while she's ill in hospital.

Definitely have to go through them all adding descriptions, as there's people in the photos I don't even recognise.

Thank you!

Quartz · 11 Sep 2022 at 22:19

If you have some sort of automatic feeding mechanism then 150 photos will take very little time to scan.

Donnie Fisher · 12 Sep 2022 at 06:34

Scan them at 300dpi, Tiff format for no loss of data which will be more than enough to reprint from them if needed. (I think an old photo is realistically about 150dpi ) Then once all scanned you can batch resize them to smaller jpegs .

150 photos will not take long.

Quartz · 12 Sep 2022 at 09:24

Donnie Fisher said:
Scan them at 300dpi,

You should try for higher. IIRC a 35mm negative is the equivalent of about 5 megapixels.

Donnie Fisher said:
Then once all scanned you can batch resize them to smaller jpegs .

Yes, this.

OspreyO · 26 Dec 2022 at 18:13

I think get them scanned quickly and don't worry too much about the quality unless you've already got decent equipment. Most (non camera) People just want to have easy access to see them. They won't be complaining about the quality.

I've a quite a few boxes full of old photos and 35mm film I'd like to digitise and clear out. They sit in boxes or albums for decades which is a pity. I've yet to find a good compromise between time and quality.

150 isn't that many. Pick out the best ones and do them first.